


catching sunbeams

by Larissa



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, awkward teenagers, sleeping issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-25 09:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6189520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larissa/pseuds/Larissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette Dupain-Cheng goes up to water the plants on her rooftop and finds Adrien Agreste sleeping on her chaise.</p>
<p>There's a great explanation for this, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. catching sunbeams

**Author's Note:**

> Couple of quick things:
> 
> 1) I've only been to France once on vacation many years ago; any cultural gaffes are my own. I would very much appreciate any necessary corrections!
> 
> 2) This is the first thing I've written in months and somewhat unpolished as a result. I also have no idea where this is going, which is not how I usually write. Bear with me. Many, many thanks to [Lethe](http://archiveofourown.org/users/disjunkt/profile) for the beta.
> 
> 3) There are no spoilers for the origin episodes in this fic, if you're avoiding them!

Although she lived next door to her school, Marinette didn’t always go home for lunch. Sometimes, she’d use the time to patrol Paris, and ensure no one needed her help. Other times, she took the opportunity to catch up on all the homework that so often got pushed aside in favor of way more important things. Still, she had to keep up appearances. She made an effort to come home for lunch several days a week.

She was just finishing up her meal when her mother called up to her from the bakery. “Oh, Marinette, would you water your plants before you go back, please? I went up this morning and they’re starting to dry out in the heat.”

“Huh? Oh-- yeah, of course.”

Keeping plants was a new thing, and Marinette sometimes forgot that she had to water them regularly. She was only keeping them to watch them grow; she didn’t care too much for the maintenance, especially now that it was nearly summer. But they made Tikki happy, so she’d done her best to keep them alive.

Marinette filled up the water pail and carried it upstairs, careful not to spill on anything. She’d filled it up a little much, but she didn’t want to come all the way back down again. Easier to do it all in one go. She pushed open the trapdoor to the roof and climbed out--

And froze as she caught sight of Adrien Agreste sleeping on her chaise.

 

* * *

 

In hindsight, it had all been Plagg’s fault.

Adrien had been warned, early on, that he might find himself with a few feline mannerisms. For the most part they were easily managed. Years of modeling had conditioned him to control himself, and if anything he found the superhero persona to be an outlet for all of his nervous energy. At times, things leaked over to his normal life, but he found ways to explain them away.

The real problem was the sleeping.

 

* * *

 

Adrien liked class. He’d realized that this made him unique among his peers, but after so many years of being homeschooled it was nice just to be around other people while he was learning. Even if it was something he’d gone over before, there was always some kind of different spin on it.

“And in the seventeenth century…”

He wasn’t sure what it was about today, but he couldn’t focus. Adrien usually took down notes, but he’d barely touched his tablet in the past twenty minutes. He slumped forward in his seat. Had the heat been turned up? 

“Kim, if you could read the next passage?”

Adrien glanced down at the text they were going over, but the words seemed to blur before his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, but they didn’t get any clearer. Instead, every time he closed his eyes, he felt like it would be easier to keep them shut. Maybe no one would notice if he looked like he was reading…

There was a jab in his side. Someone was hissing his name. Nino?

Adrien lurched upright. His eyes were clouded, and he blinked a few times to clear his vision.

“If you’d care to join us, Adrien,” Mme. Bustier’s voice cut through the haze.

Had he just--

He had. He absolutely had. He’d fallen asleep _in class_.

The entire class was staring at him. Not a single one had spoken -- not even Chloé. He realized they were all waiting for him to say something.

“I-- I’m so sorry!” Adrien stammered. “I was--”

_I was out chasing an akuma until 2 in the morning with Ladybug, we barely got it and she pulled off the most brilliant plan, I wish someone had filmed it so I could watch it over and over again--_

“I had a late night,” he mumbled.

The other kids were whispering to one another. Chloé gave him what she probably thought was a comforting look and before he knew it her arms were around his shoulders. “You poor thing,” she simpered. “You work so hard, and you never have any time to rest. I think I should take you home and make sure you get a good night’s sleep.”

“I’m _fine_ , Chloé,” Adrien protested, pulling back from her. He looked up at the teacher, apologetic. “I’m sorry, can we just--”

“Let’s all return to our seats, please,” Mme. Bustier said. “Chloé, if you’d read the next passage?”

 

* * *

 

Adrien wasn’t really sure why the other kids didn’t tease him; maybe it was because they knew how busy he was, or because they’d all been so surprised to see him in that state. He was grateful for it, either way.

Of course, Nino took it as an opportunity to lay into him. “Dude! You’ve gotta do less stuff! Look what it’s doing to you!”

“It’s fine, Nino,” Adrien said as they headed outside. They’d been having this conversation ever since class ended. “I told you, I just had a late night. I’ll sleep tonight and I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, until you come in tomorrow with bags under your eyes.” Nino frowned. “Come on, dude. Don’t models need beauty sleep or something?”

They did. Unfortunately that block of free time was also needed by a certain superhero. “I get plenty of sleep,” Adrien said. He glanced at the street. The limousine was waiting for him. “I gotta go.”

Nino looked as if he still wanted to argue, but few could win against Adrien’s calendar. “Okay, man. See you tomorrow.”

 

* * *

About two hours later, it was Adrien’s piano teacher prodding him in the back with that baton she always carried around. Adrien lifted his head and groggily rubbed at his face. He could feel the imprints of the piano keys against his cheeks.

So much for making it through the rest of the day.

* * *

Even then, Adrien had thought it was a fluke. He’d been perfectly fine the next day, and no one said anything about it. He _did_ have a busy schedule, after all. It wasn’t absurd to think he might need to catch up on sleep every now and then.

* * *

Three days later he fell asleep during fencing practice. Masked. Standing up.

It was a wonder he hadn’t been seriously injured.

* * *

“You’re doing great, Adrien. Gorgeous as usual, just gorgeous. This shade looks great on you. I’ll be done with your makeup in just a couple more minutes, okay? ...Okay? Adrien?”

He’d fallen asleep again during the shoot, but given he’d been lying on a bed for half the photographs it was only to be expected.

* * *

He tried drinking coffee.

The good news was that Adrien managed to stay awake for twenty-four hours.

The bad news was that it tasted awful, the sugar he dumped in to improve the taste made him hyperactive, the caffeine gave him headaches, and the ensuing withdrawal made him sleep through half an akuma attack and even though Ladybug didn’t say anything, he knew she was unhappy with him.

Coffee wasn’t going to work.

 

* * *

“This is getting ridiculous,” Adrien said, upon returning home.

“I’ll say,” Plagg replied through a mouthful of cheese. “Who ever heard of a teenager that doesn’t get enough sleep?”

Adrien glared. The kwami continued eating. Plagg had, to this point, been completely unhelpful. His only advice, when Adrien complained, was to sleep more.

“I _can’t_ get any more sleep,” Adrien protested. “My schedule--”

“You and your schedule.” Plagg sniffed in disdain. “You’re going about this all the wrong way.”

“Oh this should be good.”

“You gotta _make_ time for sleep. Sleep’s like a good cheese. You gotta put in a little bit of effort, and then you let it happen. It’s like magic.”

Adrien paused. Considered that for a moment. “...That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sure it does.” Plagg munched on his cheese. “Think about it. You need sleep one way or the other, don’t ya? Why not make the time?”

“I’m not going to find twelve hours a day,” Adrien muttered. “It’s hard enough finding six.” He stared at his calendar moodily. Even on those days he didn’t end up going out and fighting an akuma, he had to get up early for school.

“Listen, kid,” Plagg said. He floated up from his cheese. “This is why catnaps were invented.”

Great. Now Plagg was making puns. He really was doomed. Adrien groaned and sagged back on his bed, exhausted. This wasn’t helping at all and now he was going to be even more tired tomorrow. He had basketball after school and a shoot in the evening. There was no way he was going to make it that long.

Unless…

Adrien took another look at his schedule.

“Plagg, you’re a genius,” Adrien said.

“Obviously.”

 

* * *

 

Over the next few weeks, Adrien developed a schedule of his own.

Even with his variable calendar, there were a few constants Adrien could count on. The first was the Gorilla.

He’d fallen asleep in the limousine before, even before Plagg came to him. It was comfortable, after all, and at the end of a long day he was usually exhausted. Now, though, he didn’t just doze off occasionally -- he made a habit of it. Ten minutes in traffic meant ten minutes of sleep.

Adrien felt like a fool when he realized just how much time he’d been wasting sitting around in the car. All that time, he could have been sleeping. 

Of course, it wasn’t easy to fall asleep the moment he got in the car, or wake up the moment he arrived somewhere. He still wasn’t managing it on most of his shorter commutes. But now, every time he saw the limousine, he felt himself getting tired.

The second and equally important constant was lunch.

Every day, he had about two hours for lunch, less the time it took the Gorilla to drive him to and from school. Adrien took to requesting his meal in his room, ate quickly, and slept until he had to return to class.

That, too, was hard to do. There were days when he didn’t want to get back up and go to school, especially if there had been an akuma attack. And sometimes he was called away during lunch for work -- usually to meet someone in the industry, but other times his photoshoots would start during lunch and go into the afternoon. Still, lunchtime was the biggest block of time he had, and Adrien fought for it as much as he could.

But he hadn’t slept through any more akuma attacks. That made it all worth it.

 

* * *

 

It was when spring rolled around that he started taking chances.

Springtime in Paris was, as a rule, quite lovely. Adrien found himself wanting to go outside and enjoy the breeze and the warm sun. He made do as best he could by soaking it in whenever Paris called on him to defend against an akuma, but being Chat Noir seemed to amplify the effect. 

He didn’t realize how _much_ it affected him until Ladybug found him sprawled out on a rooftop, half-dozing.

“...Do I even want to know what you’re doing?”

There was a significant part of Adrien that knew he had to look ridiculous like this, lying on the top of a building with his limbs spread out. A larger part of him, however, couldn’t help but reflect all the sunlight into a beam at Ladybug. “I’m enjoying the weather, of course! Care to join me, my lady?”

Ladybug looked over the hard concrete he’d made himself comfortable on and quirked her lips. “I think I’ll pass.”

“Are you suuure? It’s very com-fur-table down here.” Chat winked.

“Uh-huh.” Ladybug shook her head with a smile and offered him a hand up. “Come on, silly kitty. Let’s get going.”

Forget sunlight -- he swore he could feel the warmth of her hand through the suit.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes he went home after akuma attacks. Sometimes he didn’t.

It didn’t really matter, either way. Paris had grown accustomed to them, in the way that one grows accustomed to a pest that won’t go away. To the regular citizen, despite all the terror and horror an akuma could inflict, ultimately Ladybug would save the day and make everything go back to normal, no matter what the issue. Whether an Egyptian pharaoh had risen from the grave, a mime had gotten a little too realistic, or a dragon had taken to the skies, sooner or later Ladybug would miraculously save the day.

If Chat wasn’t there for the whole process himself, he’d wonder how she managed to be so consistent. Surely anyone else would have slipped up by now. Certainly he had.

By and large, the whole thing had become somewhat routine. An akuma disrupted the city; he and Ladybug took care of it; depending on the scale of the attack city functions were back on track within six to twelve hours. Rinse, repeat.

So maybe he took his time getting home after akuma attacks. It wasn’t like he had other opportunities for free time.

 

* * *

 

When Adrien went looking, there were actually a number of comfortable places on high rooftops. Most of the time the Grand Palais was fully booked and its rooftop pool bustling with people, but in the early hours before dawn it was usually empty. 

He should have gone home. Would have, if home wasn’t cold and empty. Here he could catch a few hours of sleep and watch the sun rise over Paris. There was a chill to the air but nothing he couldn’t tolerate in the suit.

He wondered where Ladybug was.

He wondered who Ladybug was.

At seven, just as the sun came up over the city, he went back home. There was no sign that anyone had noticed he had left.

 

* * *

 

Adrien had had a few mishaps here and there. As much as he tried to keep to his schedule -- both of them -- there were some days where things just didn’t go his way and he ended up in the same place he started, dozing off in the middle of one of his activities.

The key, he’d found, was to fall asleep during the _right_ activity. Hair and makeup were the easiest. Adrien had found it difficult to stay awake during those tasks from the beginning, and now he barely made it to the chair before nodding off.

And if he caught his Chinese teacher in the right mood, Adrien could convince him to tell one of his stories, and he’d get so wrapped up in it that he never noticed the dozing boy in front of him.

More often than not, though, his schedule didn’t line up to make things easy on him, and he _definitely_ wasn’t going to fall asleep playing basketball again. And that left Adrien with school.

He didn’t _want_ to sleep during class. If he had had a choice, he’d be alert and awake for every lesson. But sometimes, after a night spent fighting an akuma, all he could do was bow his head over his tablet, close his eyes, and hope no one noticed...

Of course people noticed. Nino elbowed him. Chloe snorted and tossed her hair over her shoulder and he knew she was asking why he wasn’t taking care of himself, didn’t he know better, he’s a _model_. After class Marinette tried to talk to him and stumbled over half her words but it sounded like she was asking if he was okay. He gave her the standard answer.

“I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about. I just didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

Marinette’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

 

* * *

 

Adrien knew his luck would catch up with him eventually. It was only a matter of time. 

He’d gone home for lunch, but spring was bleeding into summer, and it was so warm out that he couldn’t stand being inside. He needed to soak in all in before he had to go back to school.

He told the Gorilla he was walking back to school and transformed in the next alleyway, leaping from one rooftop to the next.

It didn’t take long before he found something-- a nice little chaise tucked away on a balcony. No windows, so nobody would see him. Only a couple of plants and a trapdoor.

Perfect for a quick catnap.

 

* * *

 

Ten minutes later, Marinette Dupain-Cheng went up to water the plants on her rooftop, and found Adrien Agreste sleeping on her chaise.

Her fingers went slack on the water pail. It overturned on Adrien’s head. He yowled and fell off the chaise with a clatter. It was, perhaps, the most undignified he’d ever looked.

Marinette’s eyes had gone impossibly wide as she stared at him. “A-A-A-Adrien?” she managed to squeak out.

Adrien squinted at her through wet hair. “ _Marinette?_ Why are you here?”

“This is my _house_ ,” Marinette said. She looked from Adrien to the trapdoor and back again. “I… how did…”

Adrien looked down at himself. His transformation had released.

Two things became blindingly, painfully clear.

One: he was going to murder Plagg.

Two: there was no reasonable explanation he could give her to explain this situation.

“I. Uh.” Adrien swallowed and forced a smile. “...Hi?”


	2. parkour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien tries to explain to Marinette why he's on her roof. It goes about as well as you'd think. Or does it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am utterly floored at the response to this fic. I've been writing fic for many years, but I've _never_ had this kind of response to anything I've posted, here or elsewhere. Thank you all so, so much.
> 
> A few more notes on this one:
> 
> 1) I realized after I posted the first chapter that Marinette does not actually have a chaise on her balcony. This is now an alternate universe where she does. (If you spot any major canon goofs, please let me know!)
> 
> 2) I have a better sense of where this is going, but I had a lot of trouble with this chapter and it's a little rough. Once again, many thanks to [Lethe](http://archiveofourown.org/users/disjunkt/profile) for the beta.
> 
> 3) You can find me over at [farfromdaylight](http://farfromdaylight.tumblr.com) on tumblr, feel free to drop by!

Deep down, Adrien had known that all this was going to backfire on him sooner or later. Sure, he could get away with sleeping on unoccupied rooftops, but actual balconies with furniture? Most people actually used those. The more risks he took, the more chance there was that someone would find out his bad habit.

He’d just thought he’d be able to hide behind a mask when it happened.

Instead, he was soaking wet and definitely _not_ covered in waterproof leather, while his classmate gaped at him.

“I-- I don’t understand,” Marinette said. She looked from Adrien to the trapdoor again, as if it would help make sense of this situation. “How did you get up here?”

Adrien managed a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly. “That’s-- that’s, uh, a funny story…”

Marinette didn’t seem to be listening, though. Instead, she’d turned to the other side of her balcony, towards their school. Adrien hadn’t realized she had a clear view of the entrance from here. “But I saw you go home for lunch,” she said. “You always get picked up to go home for lunch, and you get back right before class starts.” She turned back to him, utterly confused. It looked as though she couldn’t process the idea that he was _here_ when he should be _there_. “How--?”

He just _had_ to get caught on the roof of someone who was observant, didn’t he?

Adrien looked around the balcony. There was still no sign of Plagg, that jerk. Adrien wished he could hide behind the mask and make a joke to cover what he’d been doing, but it was much too late for that.

“I, ah, I can’t… explain.”

Marinette hadn’t been expecting that. “But you’re on my _balcony_.” She pointed to the chaise he’d knocked over. “I found you sleeping on my chair!”

He’d been hoping she’d forgotten about that, actually. Some luck.

“...Why were you _sleeping_ … on _my_ chair? I don’t… Adrien?”

Adrien gulped.

He had to tell her something. _Anything_. Whatever would get her to understand that he wasn’t -- whatever she was thinking now. From an outside perspective, it probably looked as if he’d snuck into her house somehow and climbed up to her roof, without being noticed by the people inside, while he was supposed to be in a completely different building. 

Which was impossible. And if she figured that out, then it wouldn’t be long before she realized that he had to have had some other way to get onto her roof. A way that involved cat ears.

Chat Noir might have gotten into this situation, but it was Adrien who had to get himself out. He couldn’t sacrifice his identity for this.

“...I was, uh. Sleepwalking.”

“ _What?_ ” Marinette stared at him.

“Yeah,” Adrien said. “It’s a problem I’ve had for a while. Sometimes I wake up and find myself somewhere else, and I have no idea how I got there. It’s made my sleep all messed up, so I get tired much more often.”

“But… that’s…” Marinette shook her head. “Are you saying you sleepwalked… _here?_ ”

Right. That little detail.

There had to be a way to explain it. He couldn’t have come through the bakery or Marinette’s house, between people noticing him and all the stairs. But if it wasn’t that, then the only way to explain it was…

“...Parkour.”

“Parkour?”

“Yeah, weird, huh?”

“Parkour… sleepwalking?”

Adrien forced another smile, while a mantra of _please believe me_ repeated over and over in his head. “It’s something about, uh, how loose the muscles are during sleep? I think? I looked it up online but I didn’t find much. Usually-- usually what happens is I wake up while I’m starting to climb up something that’s easy to get back down, like a tree. But sometimes I end up on something really high up. Which means it’s really lucky that you poured water on me! I might not have woken up otherwise.”

Marinette blushed and flailed and made some kind of strangled noise Adrien couldn’t quite make out. 

He looked at her in concern. “Marinette?”

She mumbled something under her breath, unable to meet his eyes. “Fmghfg.”

This, at least, was normal behavior for Marinette, from Adrien’s point of view. He seemed to startle her on a regular basis. Recently he’d tried to be more careful in how he approached her, and it had paid off in actual conversation, but sometimes this still happened. “Marinette?” he tried again.

“I-- I watered your clothes-- I mean I clothed your water-- I mean--” She shook her head, pigtails swishing back and forth. “I’m so sorry! I poured water all over you! I’ll just-- I’ll go grab a towel, wait here--”

Before he could protest she had disappeared back down the trapdoor and into the house.

Adrien stared after her in disbelief.

Had she…

Had she actually _bought_ it?

Maybe his luck wasn’t so awful after all. Now, if he could just find Plagg, he could slip away before she came back.

Wait-- _Plagg_.

“Plagg!” Adrien hissed. He checked his (soaked) shirt pocket. His pants. He looked under the chaise. “Plagg, where are you? She’s gone, you can come out!”

There was no response.

  

  

* * *

  

Adrien’s first mistake had been transforming into Chat Noir.

His second mistake was falling asleep above a bakery.

Oh, Plagg had tried, he really had. It was _important_ to Adrien to get these little naps in throughout the day. Plagg understood that more than Adrien would ever grasp. Adrien only got the blunt end of the effects. His senses were heightened. He was more alert, more aware of his surroundings. But everything came with a price. For Adrien, it had been the one thing he found most inconvenient: sleep.

It was a rare side effect for a Chat Noir. Usually it was Plagg who spent most of his time sleeping, using every opportunity he could to regain his energy. As troublesome as things were for Adrien, Plagg was grateful things had turned out this way. The world was so _interesting_ in this time. 

(He spent most of Adrien’s activities browsing the internet on his phone. Now _that_ was magical.)

But nothing compared to camembert.

To think there was a whole stack of it on the shelf, just waiting to be sold! And once it was, it would be replaced by another stack, and another! Plagg couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful. And he certainly couldn’t let it go uneaten.

Besides, Adrien could take care of himself for a few minutes.

(No one caught _him_ , of course. Plagg knew how to stay out of sight.)

  

* * *

  

  

“Okay, here’s how this is going to work,” Marinette said.

Even with the towels she’d brought up, Adrien hadn’t been able to dry off all that much. She’d drenched his head and most of his shirt, and he’d dripped all over his shoes when he stood up. He’d toweled off his hair and pulled off his white jacket. She’d told him to leave it there to dry, and he hadn’t argued.

“Maman will be leaving on a delivery in a few minutes,” Marinette said. “Papa is down in the bakery. We just have to wait until she leaves, and then go out through the side door. Do you think you can get home okay?” 

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Adrien said hurriedly.

He’d seen Marinette take charge before in situations with their classmates, but Adrien had never had an occasion to see this behavior directed towards him. She still wasn’t quite meeting his eyes, and there was a faint flush to her cheeks, but other than that she was all business.

She hadn’t said anything further about the story he’d told her. He wondered if she believed it. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer.

Adrien swallowed. “Marinette, I--”

“There she is, duck!” Marinette pushed him towards the back of her balcony, and then, to his surprise, went to the edge and leaned over. “See you later, Maman!”

“Bye, Marinette,” her mother called up to her. “Make sure you get back to school on time, okay?”

“I will!”

Marinette waved to her mother for a few moments, then pulled back and squared her shoulders. “Okay. Follow me.”

Despite the fact that he’d been sleeping on her balcony, it wasn’t until he was climbing down the ladder into Marinette’s room that he felt like he was trespassing. He’d been here before to play Mecha Strike with her, but this felt like a much deeper invasion of privacy, and he slunk behind Marinette, trying not to make any noise.

Her whole family was nothing but kind and welcoming, and he’d probably ruined all of that today.

Marinette went down the stairs ahead of him to the floor where her family lived, and gestured for him to follow once she’d ensured it was empty. He tried his best to emulate his alter ego -- he could sneak up on someone in complete silence as Chat Noir. As Adrien it was all he could do to keep the floorboards from creaking. Marinette waved at him to hurry up and he stumbled after her.

Out the door and through the hall they went, down another set of stairs, and finally they were at the street. Adrien didn’t even realize he was holding his breath.

He turned to Marinette and realized he didn’t know what to say. Instead he raised his fist. Marinette looked at it, not understanding, and Adrien realized his mistake. He jerked his hand back and shifted the motion to scratch the back of his head, nervously.

“Um-- well-- thank you,” he managed. “You didn’t have to do that. Any of that. I know it’s-- weird.”

Now that he was back here on the street, he knew it was _beyond_ weird. Anyone who heard the story would think so. Nobody would buy that excuse.

“It’s okay. You can trust me.”

Adrien looked up at her, surprised. There was a flicker of -- _something_ in Marinette’s eyes, but after a moment it passed, and she smiled at him. “Maybe next time, though, give me some warning?”

Next time?

What did _that_ mean?

“I-- I can try,” Adrien stammered. “Not that I’m, you know, planning on-- this was really just a one-time thing, I never meant to-- I’m _really_ sorry about this--”

Marinette giggled. “I know.” She nodded towards the school. “Come on, it’s almost time for class. You’d better hurry home and change. See you in class?”

Adrien nodded. He watched as she headed across the street to their school.

_What just happened?_


End file.
